Story Title: The Case of the Chemical Syndicate Published: March 1939 (cover-dated May 1939) Writer: Bill Finger Artist: Bob Kane (with sole credit going to “Rob’t Kane”)
The Background: Seeking to capitalise on the success of Clark Kent/Superman in their Action Comics publication, the editors of National Comics Publications wanted more superheroes under their banner. In response to this, artist Bob Kane, inspired by pulp heroes like Kit Walker/The Phantom and Lamont Cranston/The Shadow and Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketch of an ornithopter flying device, drew up a design for a new masked crimefighter, the “Bat-Man”. This design, however, was wildly different from the image of the Caped Crusader we know and love today and it was only thanks to the long-suppressed influence of artist Bill Finger that the Bat-Man gained his iconic cape, cowl, and darker, more gothic uniform. In the years since his debut, Batman has become not only one of DC Comics’ most popular characters but also a mainstream cultural icon, appearing in numerous other comics, movies, cartoons, and videogames and it all began way back in 1939 when one man chanced upon the nucleus of a blockbuster idea and decided to exploit his partner, and his character, for all they were worth.
The Review: Batman’s first ever story is a brisk, six page adventure that begins shortly after the masked man’s debut. Unlike other superhero debuts, the Bat-Man is not afforded an origin story and his true identity isn’t revealed to the reader until the very last panel, creating a sense of mystery around the character. You’ll also notice that many of Batman’s popular and familiar elements are missing: there’s no Alfred Pennyworth, no Dick Grayson/Robin, no Batarang or Bat-Cave, Batman drives a big, red, clunky automobile rather than the Batmobile, and the story doesn’t even take place in Gotham City!
Gordon’s young friend seems to lead a boring, uneventual life.
The story begins with Police Commissioner Gordon entertaining “his young socialite friend”, Bruce Wayne; the two are enjoying a good, old fashioned bit of smoking (with Bruce puffing away on a pipe as characters were known to do in those days) and Gordon blatantly disregarding police protocol by expressing his bemusement at the mysterious “Bat-Man”. Gordon is interrupted by a report of the murder of Lambert, the “chemical king”, apparently at the hands of his own son and Gordon invites Bruce to accompany him to the scene of the murder. Yes, that’s right, the commissioner of the police invites his bored, young playboy pal to visit a murder investigation. At the scene of the crime, Gordon bluntly confronts the young Lambert about his father’s death and, after working himself into hysterics, the young man relates that he returned home early to find his father on the floor with a knife in his back and moaning about a “contract” with his dying breath. Although the young Lambert isn’t able to name any potential enemies of his father, he does name his three business partners and, quite coincidentally, Gordon gets a call that one of these, Steven Crane, received a threat against his life that very day!
The Bat-Man makes short work of Crane’s murderers and retrieves a vital clue.
Unfortunately, Crane is shot and killed in the very next panel before Gordon can even begin to mobilise a response unit but, as the killers make their escape via the rooftop, they are confronted by the Bat-Man! Garbed head to toe in black and grey, the Bat-Man sports some oddly unfitting purple gloves and showcases incredible physical strength, easily knocking out one man and sending the other “flying through space” following a “deadly headlock”. Though Gordon and his cops arrive soon after and attempt to pursue him, the Bat-Man manages to escape with the paper the murderer’s stole from Crane. Meanwhile, Lambert’s other partner, Paul Rogers, having just learned of Lambert’s death, pays a visit to their third and final partner, Alfred Stryker, only to be knocked unconscious by Stryker’s assistant, Jennings. Jennings ties Rogers up and prepares to seal him within a gas chamber in order to gas the man to death, his speech punctuated by loathsome little giggles. Luckily for Roger, the Bat-Man makes a dramatic entrance and first plugs the gas-jet with his handkerchief (…how very…low-tech of you, Batman…) and then smashes them to freedom with a wrench. Although Jennings is packing heat, the sight of the Bat-Man is enough to cause him to hesitate and be felled by a brutal tackle and a swift left hook.
*shrug* I guess that’ll save the expense of a trial…
Stryker walks in and looks to finish the job on Rogers with a knife but the Bat-Man stops him, revealing that Stryker was behind all the murders in an attempt to become the sole owner of their company, the Apex Chemical Corporation, and to get out of having to pay his former partners off. In a moment of desperation, Stryker breaks free of the Bat-Man’s grip in an attempt to escape so the Bat-Man smacks him in the jaw and sends him tumbling into an acid tank, offering only a dry comment on Stryker’s fate. The next day, Bruce Wayne appears to be unimpressed with Gordon’s telling of the story, appearing to be little more than a bored, easily distracted rich man but the final panel of the story reveals to the reader that Bruce Wayne is actually the mysterious Bat-Man which, I don’t know about you, I never saw coming!
The Summary: “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” is quite a dull story, in a lot of ways; it’s definitely an inauspicious debut for one of DC’s most iconic and popular characters and could even be a bit off-putting for modern readers, who would be more used to all the familiar trappings and elements of Batman and may be perturbed by their absence. Without the Bat-Signal, the many Bat-gadgets, or the other myriad of Bat-related elements, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” is definitely much more of a pulp mystery than a traditional superhero story. Obviously, this is mainly because superheroes were still in their genesis during this time and to be expected given the Bat-Man’s pulp influences and it does work for the context of the story.
The Bat-Man debuted as a very simple character and lacked many of his recognisable elements.
The plot revolves first around the mystery of the business partners being offed and secondly around the enigma of the “Bat-Man”, a vigilante who puzzles the police commissioner and whose motivations and backstory are a complete mystery at this point. Even learning that Bruce Wayne is the man behind the mask doesn’t really tell us anything about the character except that Bruce is clearly hiding behind the façade of a wealthy socialite. Of course, the main takeaway from this story is the Bat-Man’s callous murder of Stryker and his nonchalant reaction to it. Nowadays, Batman is notorious for his staunch “no kill” rule and would never be written to kill a man in such a malicious way but, back in 1939, that’s just what pulp heroes did and it was widely accepted. Nobody bats an eyelid and even Gordon seems in awe of the Bat-Man’s mystery and motivations and it would take a number of subsequent stories and significant developments and additions to the Bat-Man mythos to transform the character into the Batman we know and love today.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever read “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate”? What did you think of the Bat-Man’s memorable debut? What are your thoughts on the Batman, or other costumed heroes, killing? Did you guess that Bruce Wayne was the man under the mask? Do you think Bob Kane’s original Bat-Man concept would have been as successful as the character eventually became? What was your first experience of Batman and how are you celebrating his debut this month? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below and be sure to stick around for more Batman content throughout the year.
Story Title: Iron Man is Born! Published: March 1963 Writers: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber Artist: Don Heck
The Background: Long before Robert Downey Jr. uttered that unforgettable line, “I am Iron Man”, Stan Lee’s original idea behind creating Iron Man was to take a concept his readers would hate (a rich, military industrialist), throw in a little inspiration from Howard Hughes, toss in a little vulnerability and personal tragedy, and make him a character they would root for. Although Lee intended to write Iron Man’s debut, mounting deadlines saw him turn to his younger brother, Larry Lieber, to flesh out this concept. Though artist Don Heck drew the interior artwork, the cover art (which posits the question “Who? Who?Who?” and depicts Iron Man’s awesome, super chunky grey armour) was done by the legendary Jack Kirby. Stark and his armoured alter-ego was initially a whimsical, Errol Flynn-type anti-communist who existed, largely, for Lee to comment on both industrialism and the Cold War, and debuted in the pages of Tales of Suspense, a title known for including science-fiction mystery and (fittingly) suspense stories.
The Review: “Iron Man is Born!” begins in “a secluded area somewhere in the U.S. perimeter” where Anthony Stark is demonstrating the power and awesome potential of his “tiny transistors”. Though the General is initially unimpressed with Stark’s grandstanding, with just a flick of a switch, Stark’s transistor technology increases the power of even the smallest magnet a thousandfold to tear open even a heavily-sealed vault door in an impressive demonstration of the technology he believes to be “capable of solving [the] problem in Vietnam”.
Stark impresses both military officials and ladies alike with his many talents.
Having introduced us to Stark’s impressive technological genius, the story then spends the next couple of panels giving us a glimpse into the type of character Stark is. A rich, handsome, glamorous playboy, Stark is seemingly lusted after by every woman who lays eyes on him and is both a sophisticate, millionaire bachelor and a scientist who wants for nothing, is capable of getting, making, or having anything he wants, and who is one of the premier hot-shotters in the U.S.
Wong-Chu has been terrorising South Vietnam, trouncing all who dare oppose him.
We’re then introduced to the tyrannical Wong-Chu , a stereotypical “Yellow Peril” menace who has mercilessly dominated the majority of South Vietnam, bringing village after village to its knees and besting all who dare challenge him in single combat and plundering without compassion. Wong-Chu and his “Red Guerrillas” vastly outnumber the stationed U.S. forces and have the advantage of being able to navigate through the dense jungle, which keeps the U.S. military’s heavy weapons and armaments at bay. Considering it’s Vietnam and we all know how messed upthat particular conflict was, it’s a bit odd that the army would rather employ Stark’s transistor technology (as groundbreaking as it apparently is) to solve this problem rather than, I dunno, simply burning the jungle.
A booby trap causes sharpnel to become lodged near Stark’s heart, giving him just days to live!
However, while wandering around in the jungle for apparently little other reason than to deliver exposition, Stark triggers an unseen booby trap and is captured by the Red Guerrillas while he lies wounded. At the Guerrilla chief’s headquarters, their physician reveals that Stark is in critical condition; shrapnel near his heart makes it impossible for them to operate and Stark will be dead within about a week. Undeterred, Wong-Chu decides to coerce Stark into using what little time he has left to make weapons for them instead. Immediately sensing Wong-Chu’s deception, Stark agrees to their terms if only to use their resources in one last, desperate attempt to keep himself from dying. Considering he has untold pieces of shrapnel lodged in his chest and is, apparently, in critical condition and mere days away from death, Stark is rather spirited, able to stand, walk around, and work himself around the clock with only the looming threat of his impending demise working against him rather than, you know, agonising pain.
Yinsen helped Stark, and sacrifices himself, to create a powerful suit of armour to save his life.
On the second day, Wong-Chu bring Stark an assistant, the aged Professor Yinsen, a man whom Stark recognises and seems to idolise after studying Yinsen’s texts while in college. Stark shares his plans with Yinsen and they work together to complete Stark’s imaginative solution to his problem: a mighty electronic body powered by Stark’s transistor technology. This massive iron frame is specifically crafted to replicate all the natural movements of a man and to work in conjunct with Stark’s transistors to both keep him alive and grant him freedom of movement. With Stark’s conditioning worsening as time goes on, Yinsen presents him with the iron chest-plate to applies it, and the remainder of the suit, to Stark’s body. However, after powering up the generator, Yinsen selflessly rushes out to keep Wong-Chu’s forces at bay while Stark lies motionless and helpless.
The suit saves Tony’s life but it takes him some to adjust and adapt to it.
As the transistors charge up Stark’s suit, he is devastated to hear the sound of his friend being shot and killed and swears vengeance for him. Once the suit is fully charged, Stark’s life is saved; the transistors imbedded in the chest plate are vaguely depicted as being something akin to a life support machine that keeps Stark’s heart beating but we know, from the demonstration of the transistor’s magnetic powers that we saw earlier and from subsequent stories, that the suit is actually keeping the shrapnel at bay to keep Stark from dying. Surprisingly, and somewhat hilariously, Stark struggles to adjust to his new armoured suit, falling and having to take a panel or two to master the awesome power of the suit. Even more surprisingly, as Wong-Chu’s men head towards his cell, Stark has a moment of despair; he sees the oncoming battle as his “greatest test” and wonders if his suit will be up to the task while simultaneously doubting his own humanity and the unknown future that lays ahead of him as he must remain reliant upon, and encased within, his iron suit. It’s a startlingly affecting couple of panels and really shows just how much the experience has affected the formally carefree Stark.
Iron Man’s armour affords Stark many abilities and allows him to easily best Wong-Chu in combat.
Pragmatic as ever, Stark utilises his “transistor-powered air-pressure jets” to perform a great vertical leap and hides from Wong-Chu’s forces using “suction cups” to cling to the ceiling. After hearing clarification of Yinsen’s death, Stark again swears to make the Red Guerrilla’s pay for killing an innocent, harmless old man as Iron Man. Out in the courtyard, Wong-Chu is celebrating another victory over a hapless villager when Here Comes a New Challenger!! Iron Man approaches Wong-Chu and challenges him to single combat, easily besting him with his transistor-powered strength.
Iron Man uses his many gadgets and gizmos to deter and and demoralise Wong-Chu’s forces.
Iron Man’s reinforced metallic shell is even capable of deflecting bullets and, when Wong-Chu orders the use of grenades, Iron Man simply “[reverses] the charge in [a] magnetic turbo-insulator” and “[uses] a top-hat transistor to increase its repelling power a thousandfold” to deflect the incoming projectiles. Wong-Chu is incensed when his men flee from Iron Man’s power and uses a loudspeaker to offer a thousand yen reward to the man who can destroy the metallic menace who threatens his rule; however, Iron Man uses “electrical interference” to drown out Wong-Chu’s words and replace them with an order for the Red Guerrillas to flee in panic.
Though stunned by a rock-filled filing cabinet, Iron Man brings an end to Wong-Chu’s threat.
Though he easily uses his miniature buzz saw to cut through the locked door that hides Wong-Chu, Iron Man is briefly incapacitated when Wong-Chi is able to topple a rock-filled filing cabinet on top of him. Okay…first of all: where did Wong-Chu get the rocks to fill the filing cabinet and, secondly, how was is it he had the strength to push it down the stairs but Iron Man, with all his transistor-powered strength, struggled to lift it off of him? Regardless, Iron Man soon lifts the weight off of him but finds that he has exerted his power levels far too much and cannot pursue Wong-Chu. However, determined to keep the tyrant from slaughtering all of the prisoners in the camp, Iron Man squirts a thin stream of oil towards the ammunition storage building Wong-Chu is running past and ignites it, blowing Wong-Chu to smithereens without hesitation and leaving Stark to ponder his unknown future that lies before him as Iron Man.
Tony does not initially appear to be made out of traditional hero material…
The Summary: “Iron Man is Born!” is quite the snappy little story; Tony Stark is indeed a very different character compared to some of Marvel’s other heroes in that he is a womanising philanthropist. While he’s not shown to be aloof or carefree, the panels depicting him as a billionaire playboy certainly indicate that this is the case; sure, he’s clearly a patriot but he seems to assist the military effort more out of personal pride and to show off his technology rather than out of any real inherent duty to his homeland.
A prisoner with only days to live, Stark falls back on his intellect to save his life.
Yet, when captured by the Red Guerrilla’s, Stark comes face-to-face not only with the true extent of the brutality of the Vietnam conflict but also his own mortality; where other Marvel heroes may have faced this threat with a witty remark or a patriotic resolve, Stark instead invests himself in the only thing he really knows: his science and genius. He works tirelessly to construct the Iron Man armour, crafting a sophisticated, life-saving machine out of a smattering of resources and technology, not just to save his own life but also to take Wong-Chu down with him.
Stark faces an uncertain future as he is initially bound to the armour in order to survive.
Indeed, initially, Stark seems to accept that this will be a suicide mission and that he may very well fail before he can even complete the armour; his motivations turn to revenge after the death of Yinsen, however, and he becomes quite the unlikely hero thanks to the experience of being held prisoner, coming to terms with his mortality, and the unlimited potential of his transistor-powered Iron Man persona. In the end, I actually felt like Stark had a lot in common with Doctor Bruce Banner/The Hulk in that he is somewhat horrified by the monster he has made himself into; he is not only overwhelmed by the implications of being trapped within the armour but ends the story satisfied with his vengeance but uncertain how the man once known as Tony Stark can continue to live in the world as an Iron Man.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever read “Iron Man is Born!”? How did you find it as a story and as an origin for ol’ shellhead? What did you think of Tony Stark compared to other Marvel superheroes at the time? What are some of your favourite Iron Man characters or stories? Where does Iron Man rank in your hierarchy of comic book characters? Are you doing anything to commemorate Iron Man’s debut appearance and, if so, what is it? Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Iron Man so leave a comment below.
Story Titles: “Case No.1. Meet Captain America”, “Captain America and The Riddle of the Red Skull”, and other untitled stories Published: March 1941 Writer: Joe Simon Artist: Jack Kirby
The Background: By 1941, World War Two was in full swing; Nazi Germany had overtaken Denmark and Norway in April 1940 and, after a period of resistance to joining the war effort, the United States entered the fray during 1941, providing much needed support against the combined “Axis powers” of Germany, Japan, and Italy. As a result of the ever-escalating conflict, patriotism and national pride was high, especially in America, and it was at this turbulent time that Joe Simon and the legendary Jack Kirby first debuted Steve Rogers/Captain America and his kid sidekick, James Buchanan Barnes/Bucky, two characters who would not only take the fight directly to the enemies of America and the free world but also encourage readers to support the war effort by any means necessary.
The Review: Captain America Comics #1 is a bumper forty-five page debut issue for the First Avenger that features four short stories (and even a two-page text story with only a couple of accompanying drawings and panels) but only two of these stories have actual titles. The first, “Case No.1. Meet Captain America”, details the origin of the titular star-spangled Avenger; the War is in full swing and, while America faces real threat from the vast Axis armies overseas, they also face the threat of sabotage, treason, and terrorist bombings on their home turf thanks to the actions of the “Fifth Column”, spies and traitors from the Axis forces who perpetrated such heinous attacks. To combat this threat, the President of the United States has J. Arthur Grover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) take two high-ranking military officers to “a sinister-looking Curio Shop” in a “shabby tenement district” in Washington, D.C. that is actually the front for a highly sophisticated laboratory. There, they join other attendees in witnessing a frail, young man who was deemed unfit for active service be miraculously transformed into a man in peak mental and physical condition by Professor Reinstein’s mysterious serum.
Frail Steve Rogers is transformed into the peak of human physical ability!
Reinstein thus dubs the young man “Captain America” and explains to his awestruck audience that he is to be the first in a “corps of super-agents” who will actively oppose spies and saboteurs on America’s home turf. Unfortunately, one of the men in attendance is one of these spies (so much for the military’s stringent background checks…); with only a few frantic shots, the spy kills both Reinstein and Grover and destroys the only remaining vial of the super-soldier serum! Luckily, Captain America is able to subdue the spy, driving him to stumble into a bank of laboratory equipment and causing him to be summarily electrocuted to death. Sadly, though, the damage is done; with Reinstein dead, the serum destroyed, and the laboratory trashed, America’s hopes of building an army of super solders are dashed. Undeterred, Cap enlists in the army as Private Steve Rogers whilst also battling enemies of American soil as Captain America. Cap’s heroic antics catch the awe and imagination of his regiment’s mascot, young Bucky Barnes. Bucky is both stunned and exhilarated to stumble onto the fact that Steve is his patriotic hero, literally walking in as Steve is halfway through changing into his Captain America costume in perhaps the most anticlimactic and convenient of accidents. If you thought that was contrived and ridiculous though, Steve decides that the only logical course of action is for Bucky to join him as his partner. And so, donning a brightly-coloured outfit, a domino mask, and the laziest codename ever (Bucky goes by “Bucky”…), Captain America and his woefully-inexperienced sidekick pledge themselves to opposing the Axis powers in all their forms.
Cap and Bucky subdue the Nazi goons and put a stop to their nefarious plot.
They continue this fight in the issue’s next story, which goes untitled; in this story, a stage performer known as Sando has his diminutive, hunchbacked accomplice Omar stun audiences with predictions of the future, all of which detail terrorist attacks or destructive events. Although Bucky believes the two to be fakes, Cap is convinced when Omar’s prediction of the destruction of a nearby bridge comes true and the two suit up to confront the two stage performers. Cap doesn’t pull any punches, aggressively questioning Sando and then laying him out with a punch while Omar makes a quick getaway. I wouldn’t mind but the two haven’t even done anything yet or been proven to be responsible! Luckily Conveniently, Cap’s war-time paranoia turns out to be true as, when he races after Omar, he finds both Bucky and a beautiful reporter named Betty Ross (no relation, I’m sure) being held hostage at gunpoint by Sando and Omar, who are revealed to be working in league with Hitler’s spies to cause disasters across the country. Unimpressed, Cap and Bucky make short work of the Fuehrer’s goons, with Bucky swiftly tackling one and tossing the bomb he planned to use to kill them all out of the window before disappearing into the night. The issue’s third story also goes untitled and introduces a crazed Nazi who is known only as Rathcone but who comes to brand himself “The Dictator”. A malformed, goblin-like man, Rathcone has his own plans for world conquest and favours crafting little chess pieces that resemble his opposition, announcing his intentions to kill a target over the radio, and then employing a number of Nazi agents to carry out the deed. Captain America and Bucky seek Rathcone out after the self-styled Dictator makes good on his promise to kill Admiral Perkins; the witnesses to the gruesome visage of Perkins’ execution are whipped into a frenzy and baying for blood but Cap and Bucky waste no time in tracking down the assassin responsible for the murder.
Honestly, Steve, your constant snark to your superior officers isn’t helping the situation!
Despite Cap questioning (presumably in jest) Bucky’s ability to handle “a man’s job”, Bucky successfully tackles the killer and Cap is all set to force information out of him when an unseen assailant kills the man. This is also the first instance of Cap using his shield to…well, shield himself from gunfire, however neither he nor his kid partner are able to find the shooter. Next, Rathcone targets General Ellsworth; coincidentally (and conveniently) enough, Rogers and Bucky are ordered to report for “special duties” at Ellsworth’s hut, which means that they are the first to discover the General dead at his table! The media, of course, has a field day and Rathcone is so enthused by the two murders he has orchestrated that he begins to set his sights on the lofty goal of invasion; but first, he plots to remove Cap and Bucky from his chess board by…having his goons lure them into a trap that Bucky walks right into. Returning to his tent and finding that Bucky has gone off alone, Steve pulls on the stars and stripes and sets out to rescue him, making short work of Rathcone’s muscleman, Herr Strangler, in the process.
Rathcone captures Bucky but wastes time monologuing so Cap lays him out.
Rathcone, however, holds Cap at gunpoint and, typically, wastes his best chance to off the two masked men by explaining his master plan, which gives Cap the chance to lay him out with a good, old-fashioned punch to the jaw. After freeing Bucky, the two are set upon by Rathcone’s goons, with Bucky again requiring Cap’s assistance when two Nazis pin him down and try to stab him (I mean, it’s almost as if Cap has partnered up with a child with no training or physical acumen of any kind…). Although Rathcone recovers, tries to make a break for it, and even attempts to fight Cap off by smashing a chair over the Avenger’s head, Cap easily puts him down for the count and they uncover detailed documents of the self-styled Dictator’s plans to put an end to his scheming. The issue concludes with the first ever appearance of the Red Skull, Cap’s Nazi counterpart who would go on to be his most iconic, and enduring, archenemy. Though the Red Skull is typically the codename of Johann Schmidt, in his debut story it’s actually the persona adopted by George Maxon, a seemingly innocuous American businessman who has turned traitor and is working for the Nazis. Like Rathcone, the Red Skull’s modus operandi is to target influential military personnel in order to weaken America’s will and capabilities; he does this by stalking them, attacking them, and getting them in a choke hold all while chanting “Look at me! Look at death!” to, apparently, will his victims to death with a death gaze. So notorious is the Red Skull that he’s become something of an urban legend amongst the military personnel but, when Major Croy is found dead, the latest victim of the Red Skull, Cap takes it upon himself to investigate.
The Red Skull’s ability to apparently will his victims to death gives Cap reason enough to go solo…
Annoyed at being left behind (to be fair, I don’t blame Cap for this but, at the same time, it is extremely random (and, again, convenient) that he decided not to bring Bucky along this time…), Bucky decides to conduct his own investigation and (…somehow) stumbles upon the Red Skull’s secret lair where he is outlying his plan to overthrow the American government by “[looting] the First National Bank” because nothing says “Superhuman Nazi Terrorist” like a bit of old-fashioned bank robbery! Thanks to some shoddy masonry, Bucky falls into the villain’s lair as he moves to warn Cap of the Red Skull’s plan and, once again, finds himself being held as a hostage; this time around, though, Bucky’s slightly more feisty and doesn’t let himself get captured without a fight but, wouldn’t you know it, Cap also found the Red Skull’s lair and arrives just in time to bash up his goons, though the Red Skull manages to slip away. The next day, Steve, Bucky, and their squad are introduced to Mister Maxon who has come to join them in watching his new plane take a test flight. However, the plane catches fire in mid-flight and plummets to the ground in a fireball. Steve is disgusted that Maxon only cares about the loss of the plan rather than the men who were in it and is reprimanded by his superior officer as a result but vows to investigate further as Captain America.
Despite a brief setback, Cap is finally able to take out the Red Skull.
Later that evening, the Red Skull strikes again, literally crossing General Manor off his hit list, but is distracted from escaping into the night by the General’s wife. Though this allows Cap to get the drop on the Red Skull, he is knocked out cold when the nefarious Nazi smashes a chair over his head (which is odd as Cap shrugged off a similar shot easily enough earlier in the comic…). Luckily, Bucky flies in and rescues Cap from the Red Skull’s death gaze and, upon regaining consciousness, Cap fells his foe with a punch so hard that it shatters the Red Skull’s head! It turns out, of course, that the Red Skull was wearing a “false-face” and that Maxon had used the guise of the Red Skull, and a hypodermic needle filled with poison, to terrorise and murder his victims. Quite why he felt the need to make such a dramatic affair of it all with his “look at death” spiel is beyond me; it’s not like any of his killings took place in public or had any witnesses, after all.Anyway, Maxon makes one last, desperate lunge for Bucky and, in the fracas, rolls over onto his own needle and dies! Interestingly, Bucky questions why Cap didn’t try to intervene and he simply replies: “I’m not talking, Bucky”. Regardless, with the Red Skull dead, Cap and Bucky flee into the night, returning to their tent for some much-needed rest (Steve loves to puff away on his pipe after a good bit of manslaughter…), and ready for more adventures as Captain America and Bucky!
The Summary: Captain America Comics #1 is little more than what you might expect it to be; a bright, colourful piece of patriotic propaganda featuring a superhero literally wrapped in Ol’ Glory herself and tackling foreign enemies on American soil. It’s a brief, action-packed affair full of contrivances, conveniences, and long out-dated dialogue and virtues, but it’s a product of its time so you kind of have to expect that. You’ll notice, of course, that Captain America uses a completely different shield in his debut appearance; Cap wields a diamond-shaped shield in these stories, one far less versati le and iconic as the discus-shaped shield he would acquire in the very next issue and generally favour over the next eighty-odd years. As a result, there’s very little shield-based action or combat in this issue; Cap only uses it as a shield once, never throws it, and the rest of the time it’s more of a prop than anything else as Cap prefers to use his fists to settle his foes.
Cap’s exact strengths and limitations are quite vaguely defined in his debut appearance.
Speaking of which, Cap’s a bit of a blunt instrument here; in contrast to the majority of superhero origin stories, literally no time at all is spent showcasing Rogers’ training or physical abilities (and even less is spent on Bucky’s) and Cap’s exact strengths and limitations are extremely vague. He’s described as hitting hard and fast and can clearly take a good deal of punishment, and yet he can be stopped in his tracks by a gun, knocked out cold, and never displays any of the near-superhuman levels of strength we’ve come to associate with the character. Stylistically, the comic is obviously designed to make monsters out of the Axis powers, specifically Nazis and their ilk. Both Rathcone and the Red Skull take on grotesque visages and appearances, appearing more like demons than humans, and their underlings are depicted as slimy, cowardly traitors or muscle-bound henchmen who all blindly follow the Fuehrer’s commands even to their deaths. The idea is pretty simple: America is the bastion of all that is good and just, with their army made up of red-blooded men and patriots who are giving it all for their country, and the Axis powers are misshapen, demonic, nefarious devils who revel in spreading death and terror. In that regard, Captain America Comics #1 does its job extremely well but, overall, I can only really recommend it for containing Cap’s iconic origin story and the first appearance of the Red Skull.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever read Captain America Comics #1? If so, what did you think of it and the early adventures of Captain America and Bucky? What was your first exposure to Captain America and where do you rank him against other superheroes, Marvel or otherwise? What story or character of his is your favourite and why? How are you celebrating Captain America’s star-spangled debut today? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below and check out my other Captain America content!
Blind lawyer Matt Murdock first made his debut in Daredevil #1 in April of 1964 and was co-created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with input from the legendary Jack Kirby. While perhaps not as mainstream as characters like Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Daredevil has become one of Marvel Comics’ greatest creations and has featured in a number of ancillary media and merchandise, included a questionably-received big-screen adaptation in 2003 and a critically-successful Netflix series. Still, he’s one of my favourite Marvel characters so what better excuse to pay homage to the “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” than by dedicating a few days to celebrating his auspicious debut.
Story Title: The Origin of Daredevil Published: April 1964 Writer: Stan Lee Artist: Bill Everett
The Background: The 1960s were a golden age for Marvel Comics; in collaboration with such legendary names as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, Stan Lee created some of the most iconic superheroes, including such names as the Fantastic Four, Doctor Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man. At this point, Marvel were largely beyond introducing their new superheroes in the pages of other, unrelated or obscure comics and tended to debut them in a first issue devoted solely to Lee’s newest brainwave. Created by Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett (with some influence from Jack Kirby), Matt Murdock/Daredevil debuted on 1 April 1964 in his own, self-titled comic (which, judging by the cover, actually seems to be titled Here Comes… Daredevil – The Man Without Fear!) that blatantly leeches off the success and popularity of Lee’s other creations Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four on its front cover. Though Daredevil produced numerous challenges for Lee as a writer and editor since he was the first superhero Lee had a hand in creating with a physical handicap (in this case blindness), Daredevil would go on to be one of Lee’s most popular and enduring characters, featuring in numerous other media and adaptations over the years.
The Review: Daredevil #1 leaves nothing to the imagination by immediately proclaiming that Daredevil is destined to be the next big comics character in the same vein as Spider-Man and that his debut issue is sure to be as much a sought-after collector’s item as The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (of course, these boisterous and flamboyant claims turned out to be true as this issue is now worth up to several thousand dollars).
Daredevil exhibits his superhuman agility (and biting wit) in his search for the Fixer.
If you’ve watched the Netflix series, or only have a cursory knowledge of Daredevil, you might be surprised to find that the colourful masked crimefighter is on the hunt for a mob boss known only as “the Fixer” rather than Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. To that end, Daredevil interrupts a poker game being played by a bunch of the Fixer’s goons, easily taking them out with his incredible agility and physical strength, all while spouting exposition (comics characters loved to narrate what they were doing as they were doing it back in the sixties) and quips very much in the same manner as Spider-Man (only without the webs and constant referral to his superhuman strength and abilities).
Matt promises his Dad to focus on his studies rather than sports to make something of himself.
After depicting Daredevil thoroughly trouncing his opponents and impressing the reader with his fighting ability, the story then flashes back to 1950 where a young Matt Murdock is basically ordered by his father, Jack Murdock, to put aside sports or other physical pursuits in order to dedicate his every waking moment to studying and books. Jack, an over-the-hill boxer who performs under the name “Battling Jack Murdock”, promised Matt’s mother before she died that he wouldn’t let Matt throw away his education as Jack did and, desperate to please his father, Matt heeds Jack’s advice, despite believing that he would be just as good as the school’s best players.
It turns out Matt has a natural aptitude for fighting and weight training.
Watching with envious eyes from his bedroom window as the neighbourhood kids play and wrestle in the streets, Matt soon becomes frustrated when the local kids taunt and jeer at him, giving him the derogatory nickname “Daredevil”. In his anger, Matt strikes one of his Dad’s punching bags so hard that he knocks it clean off the chain and begins a vigorous training session involving both weight training and cardio in order to stay in shape when he isn’t studying. Because physical strength and aptitude can, apparently, be passed down genetically, Matt excels at his workout as well as he excels in his studies, developing both body and mind in order to both please his father and indulge in his desire to engage in physical activities. While Jack is proud of his son’s dedication to his studies, he’s facing hard times as he’s been unable to get a fight for some time due to his age; in his desperation, he signs a contract to become one of the Fixer’s hired fighters and is promised that he won’t have to throw a fight. Overjoyed at what he perceives to be his big comeback, Jack hurries home to share the news with his son only to find that Matt isn’t home.
Matt heroically saves an old man’s life and ends up blinded by radioactive waste as a result.
Matt, it turns out, had been studying at the library like a good little nerd but, on his way home, spots an old blind (and, presumably, deaf) man wandering into the path of an oncoming truck! Reacting with “the speed of thought” (another common colourful statement of comics from this time), Matt rushes to the man’s aid, pushing him clear of the truck but is subsequently blinded when a canister of radioactive waste falls from the truck and splashes across Matt’s face. Though Jack is despondent at his son’s condition, Matt remains optimistic and cheerful; he’s even told (in a minor, throwaway line that I feel is often forgotten and overlooked) that an operation may be able to restore his sight in a few years’ time. Matt continues both his studies (by switching to Braille, which he apparently learnt to read with little issue) and his training unabated; in fact, while exercising, he notes that his remaining senses now seem to function at a near superhuman level.
Blindness is little more than an inconvenience for Matt and actually improves many of his abilities.
After successfully graduating from high school, Matt ends up sharing his college dormitory with Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, who is in awe of Matt’s intelligence and ability. While Matt credits this to his father and his years of study, he also goes into a long internal monologue detailing how the radioactive substance may also have played a part since his hearing is now so acute that he can hone in on heartbeats, his sense of smell is so finely tuned that he can recognise and remember people on scent alone, his sense of touch is so keen that he can judge the weight of objects, read ink through skin contact, and perform all manner of superhuman acrobatics without fear, and his sense of taste is so augmented that he can tell “exactly how many grains of salt are on a piece of pretzel”. Perhaps most astounding, however, is that Matt has developed a kind of built-in radar, a sixth sense of sorts that allows him to be acutely aware of his surroundings at all times. Similar to Spider-Man’s spider-sense, Matt can tell where objects and hazards are and instinctively move to avoid them, meaning he’s far more aware and perceptive of his surroundings than fully-able people. This isn’t portrayed that well in this debut issue and would be refined over the years into something more akin to echolocation that effectively allows Matt to “see” through a sonar effect that registers movements and sounds to his mind’s eye.
Matt constructs a masked persona to honour his father and put his skills to good use.
Meanwhile, Jack’s many victories over the years have resulted in him earning a fight against the number two contender; although the Fixer orders Jack to take a dive in the first round, he is determined to make his son (who is in the audience with Foggy) proud and, spurred on by this motivation, he manages to overwhelm his foe and score the surprise victory. However, for defying the Fixer, Jack is killed by gunshot later that night, leaving Matt devastated but nonetheless determined to graduate as class valedictorian. Thanks to Foggy’s father, Matt and Foggy quickly set themselves up as attorneys at law in New York City, even hiring an attractive secretary, Karen Page. However, Matt is tormented by his need to see his father’s killer brought to justice but torn between the promise he made long ago to use his head, rather than his fists, to solve his problems. It’s then, in a flash of madness inspiration, that Matt decides to put his superhuman senses to work in creating a costume and a masked persona through which he can put his skills to use while still honouring his promise to his father. Rather than constructing the iconic red suit that has long been associated with the character, Matt uses primarily yellow and black fabrics for his first suit and takes the name Daredevil to turn the jeers of his neighbourhood kids into a moniker to strike fear into evil-doers everywhere. If you thought Matt’s sewing skills were implausible, you won’t believe his ability to take something as normal and unassuming as a walking stick and turn it, with relative ease, into a versatile combat device. Thanks to just a few hinges and a flexible handle, Matt’s stick becomes an all-purpose weapon, doubling as a billy club, a hook to swing from, and to give him a bit more leverage when he’s jumping and flipping about.
Daredevil is nigh-unstoppable in a fight and can even tell when someone is lying.
The only lead Matt has is a name, the Fixer, so he debuts his new costumed persona at the gym his father frequented, which brings the story back to where we left it in the opening, with the Fixer’s goons all beaten up. The Fixer immediately and unceremoniously walks in and Daredevil demands answers from him about Jack Murdock’s death, which causes another fight to break out. This fight goes about as well for the Fixer and his mooks as the first fight did, with Daredevil using his uncanny senses and heightened physical abilities to easily wipe the floor with them all. It’s also in this part of the story that we learn that Daredevil’s radar sense is so acute that he can tell when a person is lying simply by listening to the changes in their heartbeat. As great as Daredevil’s senses are, though, his emotions get the better of him and he is abruptly (and hilariously) shoved out of an open window (…funny, I honestly didn’t realise/couldn’t tell that they weren’t on the ground floor). Luckily, though, he’s able to use his fast reflexes and trusty cane to swing back up into the room from a convenient flag pole. Having identified that the Fixer’s goon Slade was the gun man working on the Fixer’s orders, Daredevil shoos out the other goons and attempts to get one (or both) of the men to confess to the murder of Jack Murdock but, in his overconfidence, is completely felled when the Fixer suddenly (and literally) pulls the rug out from underneath him!
*shrug* A fitting end for his kind, I guess…
Although the Fixer and Slade escape out on to the streets, and Daredevil has “wrenched” his arm in the fall, Matt is easily able to track them from the smell of the Fixer’s cigar smoke. Quickly switching back into his Daredevil costume, Matt confronts the two one last time down in the subway, tripping Slade with his billy club and using a trash can to race after the Fixer. However, the stress and excitement of it all is too much for the Fixer, who collapses from a fatal heart attack…which Daredevil is surprisingly nonchalant about. Daredevil then leads the transit police to Slade and tricks him into spilling his guts, finally ensuring that his father’s death won’t go unavenged and making his debut as a costumed crimefighter before (a division of) New York’s finest. I, personally, love how the cops are immediately accepting and trusting of Daredevil upon sight; the Marvel universe is really weird like that in that cops and the public are fine with guys like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four but cannot stand Spider-Man and the X-Men half the time, as though there’s anything about them that’s really different enough to warrant such a response.
Matt has no time for the guilty, apparently…
Satisfied, Matt returns to his office and his friends where Foggy reveals that he’s already turned down an offer to act as Slade’s defence attorney since he (as in Foggy) was convinced that Slade is guilty. Matt is, obviously, perfectly fine with this but it seems a bit unethical to me; surely lawyers are duty-bound to represent anyone and everyone to ensure that they get a fair and just trial? Plus, the implication seems to be that without Matt or Foggy acting as his council, Slade will definitely be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which is a bit of a stretch when we haven’t even seen these two in a court room yet!
The Summary: “The Origin of Daredevil” is a pretty sub-par and by-the-numbers story, if I’m brutally honest. It’s bright and colourful, as comics tended to be back the, and full of near-endless exposition, dialogue, thought- and speech-balloons, and long-outdated slang and clichés but it’s appealing enough. I guess, at the time, readers hadn’t really seen anything quite like it as, while Daredevil acts and even looks, to a degree, like Spider-Man (even borrowing one of Spidey’s most recognisable abilities), he’s still a distinctive and unique character in his own right. Daredevil is, clearly, the stand out character of this story (and rightfully so given it’s his debut and origin issue) but I can’t say that I actually find Matt to be that appealing or interesting a character. Thanks to his Dad, he’s a massive swot, a well-read bookworm who thus excels at almost everything since he’s so smart. Not only that but he’s immediately fantastic at boxing, weight-lifting, and other exercise, attractive and charming enough to appeal to and win Karen over after barely sharing a panel with her, and is seemingly infallible in every respect.
Daredevil is pretty much infallible even with his handicap, which only augments his abilities.
Obviously, you probably don’t want to debut your new character as a flawed or unlikeable individual but Daredevil only makes mistakes when the plot requires it and that’s purely just to show off his quick reflexes and physical aptitude. It does help separate him from his closest counterpart, Spider-Man, who is also a massive nerd who loves to flip all over the place dropping quips and one-liners, though. In that regard, Murdock seems like a more adult character since he is a little older than Peter Parker and has an actual, stable job and Daredevil seems to be his way of releasing all of his tension and pent-up adrenaline. There’s a lot of unique aspects to the character thanks to his blindness affording him near-superhuman abilities but, to be honest, that’s not really focused on all that much in his debut issue; blindness seems to be little more than an inconvenience for Matt as we never seem him struggle to adapt to it and, instead, he revels in the heightened abilities it affords him. Again, this does little to endear me to his character as it just makes him seem like a braggart and an annoyingly foolproof, flawless character but, thankfully, later writers would bring a dark, gritty edge to Daredevil that helped to make him far more appealing while still retaining his more impressive attributes.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever read “The Origin of Daredevil”? Do you, perhaps, still own a copy of Daredevil #1 and, if so, could you sell it and send me the money? What did you think of Daredevil’s dynamic debut and how do you think the story has aged after all these years? What do you think of Daredevil as a character and which storyline of his do you think is the best, or the worst? How are you celebrating Daredevil’s debut this year? Whatever you think about Daredevil, drop a comment below.
Story Title: The Punisher Strikes Twice! Published: February 1974 Writer: Gerry Conway Artists: Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia, and Dave Hunt
The Background: By February 1974, Marvel’s iconic web-slinger had become a mainstay of the publication since his 1962 debut in Amazing Fantasy #15. Having earned his own ongoing title, The Amazing Spider-Man, the following year and already running afoul of the likes of Doctor Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Flint Marko/The Sandman, and, of course, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, who had recently played a pivotal role in the death of Parker’s long-term girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. It’s into this tumultuous and emotional time of Spidey’s life that Gerry Conway and Ross Andru introduced not only the Jackal, a crazed scientist whose cloning technology would later result in one of Spider-Man’s most infamous storylines, but also the Punisher. Inspired byThe Executioner (Pendleton, et al, 1969 to present), designed by Gerry Conway, and named by Marvel mastermind Stan Lee, the Punisher was a hit with readers, despite being introduced in more of an antagonistic role, and began to appear in other Marvel comics, as well as his own self-titled series in 1986, with each subsequent appearance adding more layers and motivations to his character.
The Review: The Punisher, and the Jackal, are first seen in the Jackal’s hidden laboratory where the goblin-like villain expresses great admiration for the Punisher’s ability to shoot a stone statue of Spider-Man…as though destroying a static target is any indication of the Punisher’s prowess against a moving target, especially one as acrobatic as Spider-Man. The Punisher echoes these sentiments, stating that he’ll need his “Mechanic” to look over the Jackal’s concussion rifle before he takes on the real thing. While the Jackal also describes the Punisher as “[liking] the death – the killing – the joyful revenge”, Punisher rebukes this and claims that he only kills those who deserves to die….and that Spider-Man deserves such a fate.
Spider-Man is just as angst-ridden and burdened by guilt and responsibility as ever.
Speaking of Spider-Man, we join our heroic web-head in the midst of breaking up an armed robbery; it’s pretty standard fare for Spider-Man, showcasing his impressive agility, strength, and dexterity with his web-shooters as he stops the crooks and leaves them at the mercy of New York’s finest. Still, even with the prospect of earning some coin from his action-packed photographs of the bust, Spidey is tormented not only by the fact that the entire city is convinced that he killed Norman Osborn but also by the death of his beloved Gwen Stacey and the fact that he cannot bring himself to reveal Norman’s identity as the Green Goblin out of fear of devastating Norman’s son, Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn (oblivious that Harry is already aware of this fact).
The Punisher lands the first strike against Spider-Man!
After flirting with J. Jonah Jameson’s secretary Betty Brant, Peter tries to sell his newest pictures to Jonah and is made aware of the Punisher’s one-man war against the mob. Chomping at the bit for a piece of “the most newsworthy thing to happen to New York since Boss Tweed”, Jonah orders Peter to bring him pictures of the Punisher yesterday! Switching to Spider-Man, Peter has barely enough time to worry about how he’s going to track the Punisher down when he is immediately fired upon by the skull-garbed mercenary! Saved by his patented spider-sense, Spider-Man confronts the Punisher on a rooftop where the hitman momentarily ensnares Spidey in a titanium alloy wire, brands Spidey a murderer, and expresses his hatred of criminals no matter what form they take.
The Punisher is angered and insulted by the Jackal’s interference.
Breaking free of his bonds, Spidey begins to pummel the Punisher but is attacked from behind by the Jackal; disorientated and stunned by the Jackal’s “negatively-charged electro-prods”, Spidey tumbles from the rooftop (much to the Punisher’s dismay) but manages to save himself on instinct. After recovering and returning to the scene of the battle, Spidey discovers a clue on the Punisher’s discarded weapon but returns home, exhausted, to repair his damaged costume and catch his breath, unaware that an increasingly paranoid and disturbed Harry is eavesdropping at his door. After a brief segue to Mary-Jane Watson (who is still in her annoying, flaky “party girl” mindset at this point), the story dramatically cuts to the Punisher swatting the Jackal and berating him for interfering in his battle against Spider-Man. Punisher is angered at being roped into the Jackal’s murderous ways as Frank desires the complete destruction of crime, not the deaths of innocents.
Spider-Man subdues the Punisher and reveals the truth of the Jackal’s deception.
Later that day, Spider-Man follows through on his clue and arrives at the Punisher’s armoury on to find his “Mechanic”, Reiss, dead on the floor. The Punisher manages to get the drop on him (no spider-sense to save Spidey this time) and immediately pins the crime on Spider-Man. Refusing to believe Spider-Man’s pleas of innocence and yet unable to counteract his superhuman speed, strength, or agility, the Punisher is eventually subdued and forced to listen to reason when Spidey shows him the all-too-familiar claw marks on Reiss’ body and reveals that the Punisher’s gun was labelled up specifically to incriminate him. Realising that he has been manipulated by the Jackal, the Punisher swears revenge and heads off into the night. Spider-Man beats a hasty retreat as the police arrive and the Jackal looks on, vowing to destroy them both and ending the issue on a cliff-hanger that would later lead to Spider-Man doubting his very identity!
The Summary: “The Punisher Strikes Twice!” is a fairly run-of-the-mill Spider-Man story, indicative of the story style of Marvel Comics back in the day; there’s a lot of extraneous dialogue, text boxes, and thought balloons that constantly keep the reader up to date with where we are and what characters (specifically Spider-Man) are thinking and feeling. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it hasn’t aged well for me and I often find it a bit of a chore to read through some of the older Marvel stories because of their tendency to favour stilted writing, exposition-heavy dialogue, and antiquated narrative devices. Still, it’s quite a pivotal issue, introducing one of Spidey’s most nefarious foes in the Jackal and continuing his sense of guilt and dismay over the whole Gwen Stacey/Green Goblin/Harry Osborn saga. The Jackal isn’t much to shout about here in his debut, being little more than a monstrous ghoul who manipulates the Punisher into trying to kill Spider-Man presumably so that he can take over New York as the top crime boss. The issue does a decent job of establishing the Jackal as a manipulative asshole but we learn almost nothing about him beyond his desire to want Spider-Man dead; considering the Green Goblin has only just been taken off the board, it might have been a little too soon for another mysterious, imp-like puppet master enemy whose identity is a secret to crop up.
The Punisher is pretty durable and parts ways with Spidey on…partially amicable terms.
Yet, the issue is exciting and action-packed thanks not only to Marvel’s distinct, eye-catching colours and Spidey’s dynamic versatility when in action but also due to the inclusion of the Punisher. Introduced with a bang (despite how lame destroying a statue is…), the Punisher wastes no time trying to kill Spider-Man, believing him to be a murderer and little more than a masked criminal thanks, no doubt, the Jonah’s numerous news stories in the Daily Bugle and the city’s belief that he killed Norman (and, as I recall, Gwen and George Stacey as well). We don’t learn much about the Punisher in his debut appearance but we learn enough; he’s decked out in his iconic skull costume (which makes an immediate impression) and his aggressive, focused mindset separates him from the usual hired guns seen in Marvel Comics at the time (who were generally little more than just generic thugs with guns). As the issue progresses, we learn that the Punisher has a strict moral code (he is angered when the Jackal’s interference nearly causes Spider-Man’s death in a dishonourable way), an intense hatred of crime and criminals, and that he was a Marine for three years. The Punisher is also quite a sturdy and formidable opponent; not only is he a crack shot and loaded with little gadgets and tools to help give him the edge in battle but he’s also fast and strong enough to get the drop on Spider-Man, take blows from Spidey, and to cause the web-head pain when he lands a good, solid kick.
It’s a fairly standard Spider-Man story elevated by the debut of the Punisher.
In the end, he remains tight-lipped about his past and his exact motivations but is satisfied enough that Spidey isn’t the true enemy and returns to his endless war on crime maybe not on “friendly” terms with the web-head but certainly on far more amicable terms than they began at the issue’s start. Overall, it’s a pretty decent story; it’s standard sixties/seventies Spider-Man fare, with all the angst and action you can expect from this era of Marvel and Spider-Man, with the added bonus of a mysterious, intriguing new anti-hero at a time when violent anti-heroes weren’t as played out as they would come in later years. Thanks to Spidey’s endless internal monologue, it’s easy to pick up the issue and get right into the story and catch up with where the characters are and the art is both simple and yet beautifully detailed at the same time. Obviously, this was just the tip of the iceberg for the Punisher but Marvel certainly had a way with introducing dynamic, complex new characters as antagonists and then fleshing them out later on and I’d say they did just as good a job with the Punisher in his debut as they did with other characters who got a full-blown origin story in their first appearance.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Did you read “The Punisher Strikes Twice!” when it was first published? What did you think of the Punisher’s dramatic debut? What do you think of the Punisher as a character and which storyline of his do you think is the best, or the worst? How are you celebrating the Punisher’s debut this year? Whatever you think about the Punisher, drop a comment below.
Story Title: “The Beginning of the End” Published: February 1991 Writers: Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza Artist: Rob Liefeld
The Background: By the 1980s, the X-Men had become one of Marvel Comics’ most successful publications, prompting then-chief editor Jim Shooter to call for a series of X-Men-related spin-off titles. The New Mutants, a team of teenage students from Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, came out of this need for fresh new X-Men titles; created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, the first team of New Mutants debuted in September 1982 before graduating to an ongoing title that was first published between 1983 and 1991. The original team, comprised of far younger characters than those in the ongoing X-Men comics and representing a number of diverse ethnicities, eventually fell under the command of the time travelling Mutant known as Nathan Summers/Cable and was transformed into more of a mercenary team and, ultimately, reformed into X-Force. In 1991, however, Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld introduced a new antagonist for this team of hot-headed youths, the mercenary known as Deadpool, and inadvertently created one of Marvel Comics’ most popular anti-heroes in the process.
The Review: The New Mutants #98 introduces us to Gideon in the midst of a training program at Shaw Industries. Gideon is quite the enigma; possessing powers of “super human enhancement manipulation” and a very…unique sense of style, to put it mildly, he easily overcomes Sebastian Shaw’s combat modules in what appears to be a bastardised version of the X-Men’s famous Danger Room. Having wowed his underlings with his incredible performance (which mostly consists of a bit of dramatic jumping about and throwing his assailants into walls; nothing I would particularly describe as “impressive”), he runs through his itinerary for the day, paying particular emphasis on his vague plans for one Emmanuel da Costa.
Cable tries to push Cannonball’s powers to their limit.
Gideon’s plot will have to wait, however, as an impressively Liefeld-esque splash page introduces us to the actual Danger Room, where Cable is engaging in a training exercise alongside Samuel Guthrie/Cannonball. Despite Cable’s rugged insistence that he doesn’t require any help, Cannonball pulls him from the grip of some giant, ugly green machine and justifies his actions by explaining that he’s supposed to be practicing at perfecting his Mutant abilities. Eager to put these to the test, Cable initiates a more aggressive counter-attack sequence and even takes pot shots at Cannonball himself with his incredibly versatile cybernetic arm. Despite failing to balance his focus on multiple threats at once, Cable commends Cannonball’s abilities and wishes for him to expand his kinetic abilities to shield the rest of the team in battle.
Rictor is determined to get Rahne back from Genosha.
Cannonball then points out that the “team” is shy a few members and Cable conveniently runs down the reasons as to why; it seems Warlock died in the line of duty recently and Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane’s loyalties are in question but, in any case, Cannonball takes umbrage to him and his team mates being thought of as mere soldiers rather than family but Cable, rugged and war-ravaged as always, is steadfast that the reality of their situation is that all Mutants are soldiers in the world they live in. At the Da Costa International residence, a suspicious redhead hands the aforementioned Emmanuel da Costa a fresh cup of hot coffee that proves to be his last! Just one sip Emmanuel collapses to the floor in fatal convulsions while his assassin watches with glee. Back at the New Mutants’ bunker beneath the X-Mansion, Julio Richter/Rictor and the stupidly-named Tabitha Smith/Boom-Boom are arguing about having been forced to leave Rahne back in Genosha some weeks ago. While Rictor is all for leading a full-on assault against Genosha to rescue her, Boom-Boom is against it not least because such action would undoubtedly be suicide but also because Rahne chose to stay on the island. Undeterred, and temperamental, Rictor rushes out to help his team mate with or without Boom-Boom’s assistance or Cable’s permission.
Cabel is saved from certain death by Cannonball.
Speaking of Cable, everyone’s favourite time travelling poster boy of nineties excess is suddenly attacked while browsing the library. His attacker? None other than a mercenary known as Deadpool; sporting unique speech bubbles and a quick wit, Deadpool immediately reveals that he was hired by the mysterious “Mister Tolliver” to find, and kill, Cable (though he insists that the job is nothing personal). I’m not really sure what the beef is between Cable and Tolliver but it’s enough for the man to have hired an assassin despite Cable claiming that he wasn’t to blame for “what went down”. Without any real effort, Deadpool is in a position to end Cable right then and there with a clear headshot but the time traveller is saved just in the nick of time by Cannonball. Impressed with Cannonball’s abilities, but no less unprepared for them, Deadpool quickly disables Cannonball and returns to the task at hand; a swift blow from Cable breaks Deadpool’s jaw as the Mutant states: “You talk too much” and he’s not wrong. Deadpool has been jabbering a mile a minute since his explosive entrance and, while he doesn’t directly address the reader or break the fourth wall and is a far cry from his rude, crude, wise-cracking self we know now, he’s still full of the quips, words, and even gets side-tracked talking to himself.
Deadpool is shipped back to Tolliver and the issue ends on something of a cliffhanger…
Despite claiming that Cable has broken his jaw, Deadpool continues to assault his target with both words and attacks and is again in position to finish off his foe when Rictor, Roberto da Costa/Sunspot, and Boom-Boom join the fray. This, however, is of little worry to Deadpool, who easily subdues Rictor and is primed to finish the others off when he is suddenly felled from behind by Neena Thurman/Domino. Cable’s demeanour is noticeable changed by Domino’s presence (the New Mutants believe he is smitten with her) and they easily restrain Deadpool, deciding that the best course of action is to send him back to Tolliver to face the consequences of his failure. With that, Deadpool is gone from the story as Cable gives Domino the rundown on what is left of his team; while Rictor makes good on his promise to go and try to save Rahne and Cable states that he has a plan to bolster his ranks, the issue ends with Gideon delivering the news of Emmanuel’s death to his son, Sunspot, ending the issue on a bit of a cliffhanger.
The Summary: “The Beginning of the End” is a perfect of example of why I tend to shy away from X-Men comic books; the lore is so dense and impenetrable, with so many characters and stories and things to remember and keep track of, that it can be very difficult to pick up an issue, even a first issue, and know exactly what is going on. As much as I love the group and its wide variety of characters, this does sour me on trying to read more X-Men adventures as things are constantly shifting and changing all the time. Having said that, though, this is obviously issue ninety-eight so it’s geared more towards a dedicated readership than a first-time reader, so those who have been following The New Mutants since their introduction are likely to get a lot more out of this.
Cable is every fanboy’s wet dream, sporting more powers than you can shake a stick at!
Even with that, though, there is some truly ugly artwork on display here; I love the excess and elaborate art of the nineties (which was all impossibly-defined characters, pouches, guns-upon-guns, and an abundance of unnecessarily dark grittiness) but even I struggle a bit with Leifeld’s signature style. Cable looks like a man-mountain in most panels, then dramatically shrinks or grows as the page dictates, and is a hodge-podge of every fanboy’s fantasy: he’s gritty and stoic, he’s got a metal arm that shoots lasers, and a bionic eye! Thankfully, he’s largely (uncharacteristically) under-equipped in this issue and is bereft of his trademark guns and pouches. He’s even caught on the back foot by Deadpool and seemingly unable to defend himself without the assistance of others, which kind of goes against the few things I know of Cable’s reputation as a “Gary Stu”. The team’s newest villain, Gideon, is equally hideous; garbed in a tight waistcoat and wearing weird gold/bronze armlets, he sports a frankly ridiculous little white ponytail on an otherwise bald head and exhibits what I am supposed to believe are exceptional physical talents in his little training simulation. As a puppet master, Gideon is clearly positioned as a kind of anti-Charles Xavier, favouring manipulative subterfuge over the more direct methods of the X-Men’s usual foes. Whatever his grand plans are, though, I find myself apathetic thanks to his uninspired presentation and little to know explanation of the scope of his powers of influence.
Deadpool is easily able to subdue the New Mutants and instantly makes an impression.
As a result, it’s pretty damn easy for Deadpool to steal the show. Looking like a twisted version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, he (literally) explodes onto the scene and immediately looks like a formidable threat by how easily he takes Cable off-guard and overwhelms not only him but his team as well. Deadpool comes well-prepared, able to counter all of the New Mutants’ powers and abilities, and seemed poised for victory before the untimely intervention of Domino. Though he’s clearly a far cry from the self-aware, hyper-violent anti-hero we know these days, it’s clear that Deadpool has far more charisma and appeal than the likes of Gideon. We know nothing about him or his abilities and yet, through his undeniable skills and his unique style of speech, he instantly makes an impression, even more so when compared with the issue’s primary big bad. Clearly the writers thought they had something there with Deadpool as well as he is spared from execution and his storyline is left up in the air, leaving him ripe for a comeback and a brighter spotlight in subsequent issues. All-in-all, there isn’t really much to this issue of The New Mutants. Obviously Deadpool made an impression on readers at the time but I can only view the issue in retrospect and, for me, he was clearly the stand-out part of this issue and the only real reason to read this story unless you like seeing Mutants prancing around in training simulations and prattling on about their current situation. Remove Deadpool from this issue and it’s pretty much a nothing story but, thanks to his inclusion, there is at least one bright spark amidst the angst and it’s just a shame that we didn’t get to see more of him throughout the issue rather than wasting time on uninspiring nobodies like Gideon.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Did you ever read “The Beginning of the End” or The New Mutants back in the day? If so, what did you think of the team and the comic’s direction? What were your first impressions of Deadpool back when he debuted? Did you ever think he’d become as popular as he is today or were you, perhaps, unimpressed with his debut? If you were to assemble a team of New Mutants today, who would you pick and why? How are you celebrating Deadpool’s debut this month? Whatever your thoughts on the New Mutants, Deadpool, or X-Men in general, feel free to leave a comment below.
Well, we’re in the last week of October and Halloween is this weekend. If you’ve been following my blog this month, you’ll know that, as a means to generate some fitting content for the season, I’ve been taking a look back at Resident Evil: Fire and Ice, a four-issue comic book series published by WildStorm between 2000 and 2001. This series was a follow-up to their previous five-issue mini series, Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, and focused on an entirely new group of characters, the hitherto-unknown Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) Charlie team, rather than telling interludes, side stories, or truncated versions of the first two videogames. Charlie team was made up of a bunch of one-dimensional, impractically attired characters who looked like they had just stepped out of the worst comics of the nineties: led by the muscle-bound Falcon, who looks and acts like an extra fromPredator (McTiernan, 1987), the team consists of newcomer and munitions expert Raquel Fields (who is hiding a mysterious infection following a zombie attack), the shady hacker Jesse Alcorn, Patrick Brady (a former zoo keeper able to sense G-Virus monsters), the anti-authority Australian Quan Williamson, and the Mexican quasi-Native American Rosa Cardenas (whom it is implied Quan has a crush on but who actually has feelings for Brady…).
Quan fixes up a means to save his team mates from Whitlam’s clutches.
This final issue rejoins Quan in the Alaskan mountains (Charlie team split into two sub-teams to investigate two Umbrella laboratories and run into a few troubles, to say the least, almost immediately upon arrival); he discovers the remains of an Umbrella surveillance minicopter, which he uses to spy on Dexter Whitlam, Klaus, and Mr. Venk, the Umbrella scientists and operatives who have captured Rosa and Brady and are preparing to subject them to Whitlam’s experimental new X-Virus.
And that’s it for Dexter Whitlam. What a waste of time and effort.
Whitlam, who we first met as a misguided youth who stole a sample of Umbrella’s G-Virus, transformed himself into a violent “G”-type monster, and was summarily recruited to Umbrella by Klaus after (somehow) being cured, is now all grown up and has transformed into a semi-cybernetic mad scientist. He was one of WildStorm’s more interesting and layered original characters, an insight into the type of person Umbrella likes to have on staff and put to work on their experiments. So, of course, he is incinerated on page three by the exploding minicopter, bringing him to a sudden (if impressive) end.
Though saved, Brady and Rosa are revealed to have been infected with the X-Virus.
Free from their captivity, Rosa and Brady are reunited with Quan and immediately get their asses handed to them by Mr. Venk. Venk actually puts up more of a fight and gets a better showing than popular Resident Evil creatures like the Lickers and the Tyrant but, in the end, he is dispatched with a judo throw that ends with him impaled on the bloody stump of Klaus’ hand. However, as they make their mistake, Brady reveals that Whitlam succeeded in infecting them with some of his X-Virus, leaving a gloomy shadow over their otherwise joyous reunion. Back in Mexico, Falcon, Jesse, and Raquel take a jeep to a helicopter, where they spot the cactus plants arranged in a biohazard symbol. In a further nod to the series’ original Japanese name, they mention that the facility’s computer labelled their new virus as “Biohazard” and, dropping in for a closer look, discover that Umbrella placed a vial of the antidote into one of the cacti plant…because of course that was where you would leave the antidote to a deadly virus!
After dispatching their pursuers, the team begin their long flight from Mexico to Alaska.
As he is lifting her back into the chopper, Jesse again acts a little shady, insisting that Raquel hands her the antidote and, in the brief scuffle, spills half of it. Just as Raquel expresses her concerns over Jesse’ competency, they are set upon by an Umbrella attack ‘copter; however, Raquel makes short work of it with her handy-dandy rocket launcher and the team prepare to fly to Alaska.
From Mexico.
They’re going to fly from Mexico to Alaska in a helicopter! That’s over 3,500 miles! Most choppers are only good for about 400 miles before needing to refuel and, if you’re thinking they flew to an airport to refuel or switch vehicles, you’re wrong because they show up a few panels later to rescue their team mates and, judging by the background, it’s still the same day!
The other team arrives and they desperately try to subdue their mutated allies.
Speaking of the other team, Quan is forced to stop when, part-way through their trek back to the helipad, Brady begins to undergo a dramatic and painful metamorphosis into a really lame looking Mr. X/Tyrant-like creature. Falcon’s team arrives just in time to stun Brady with a crossbow (yeah…a crossbow, perhaps the weakest and most useful weapon in the Resident Evil series) but Rosa suddenly transforms into a similar, hulking creature and the team tries to subdue them non-fatally so that they can be administered with the antidote.
Jesse reveals his true colours…and then immediately dies.
Raquel manages to tie up Brady with some bolas and Falcon puts down Rosa using the snowmobile but, right as they’re about to get the antidote, Jesse reveals his true colours and, holding the two at gunpoint, reveals that he’s actually a deep cover mole placed in S.T.A.R.S. by Umbrella. This might have been surprising if the last two issues hadn’t made it abundantly clear that there was something very fishy about Jesse and it’s rendered completely redundant as Jesse is immediately skewered and killed by the monstrous Brady.
Brady is put down and Rosa is, apparently, cured. It’s hard to really tell.
Raquel injects the antidote into Rosa but Brady wakes up before he can receive it and Falcon is forced to put him down with a single shot to the head; on the plus side, the antidote takes hold in Rosa and returns her to normal (though we don’t actually see this on panel). Just as it seems like our heroes have survived, however, it is revealed that yet another shady Umbrella operative (or…maybe it’s Klaus? It’s not really made clear) who monologues that, actually, everything went almost exactly according to Umbrella’s plan as Charlie team eliminated “the rogue agent Dexter Whitlam”, killed one of their own, and Raquel’s infection will ensure that the whole team is dead before they ever get a chance to land and the issue just…ends.
None of Brady’s potential or plot threads are capitalised on.
So…what was the point of that sub-plot about Brady being able to sense the G-Virus as a result of being cured of the virus? That literally doesn’t crop up once throughout the entirety of Fire and Ice when it really could have been a useful feature that made him a relevant part of the team, or perhaps helped him to resist the X-Virus. Instead, he has this ability but does nothing with it, wields a massive, bad-ass electric cannon and is stated to be a formidable fighter (despite being nothing more than a zoo security guard), falls and hits his head, and then gets turned into a sasquatch-like thing, and summarily shot in the head. Nothing even comes of the poorly executed hint that Rosa is attracted to Brady.
The two labs seem to be working on different things? Or the same things? I can’t tell!
It all just comes crashing to the ground in this final issue; since when was Whitlam a “rogue agent”? He was directly recruited by Umbrella and was using their existing viruses and resources to fashion a new, more powerful and deadly virus; that definitely sounds like something they would do, and want, but then it doesn’t even pay off as I’m not seeing anything in the mutations Brady and Rosa undergo that makes the X-Virus better than the G-Virus or even the Tyrant-Virus (T-Virus). Neither seem anywhere near as vicious or resilient as the Tyrants or the “G” monstrosities of the videogames; I know that WildStorm liked to really neuter Umbrella’s monstrosities, with even Mr. X and William Birkin’s “G” being put down with disappointing ease, but these X-Virus creatures are even more of a joke. Not only that, issue one made it sound as though the Alaskan and Mexico laboratories were working on two separate projects and viruses. Instead, apparently, their “rogue agent” was working on the X-Virus in Alaska, which was also known as “Biohazard” in Mexico (…for some reason) and also produced an antidote…that was also in Mexico. Unless “Biohazard” is supposed to be the antidote? The issue isn’t written to support this, though, and instead it seems like Whitlam developed one virus with two names and stashed the antidote thousands of miles away for no real reason. If the X-Virus was really supposed to be the successor t the T- and G-Viruses, why even make an antidote in the first place?
Raquel’s mutation only matters when the plot says it does.
And then there’s Raquel. All throughout Fire and Ice, a big deal is made of her mysterious infection (which, I assume, she got from her brief appearance at the start of issue one and is a result of her being infected with the G-Virus) but, again, nothing comes from it. Her skin changes colour, taking on a strange green hue, she grows a bony protrusion that she immediately cuts off, she suffers from headaches (but only when it’s dramatically appropriate), and then the series winds up with the threat that she’s going to transform into…something…and kill her team mates. I was expecting her to mutate into something and battle with the X-Virus monsters but…she doesn’t and, as a result, this whole plot point is a giant waste of time that adds nothing to the story, is never resolved, and leaves more questions than answers. Say what you will about Alice (Milla Jovovich) in Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil movies (2002 to 2016), at least her mutation actually factors into the plot and the movie’s action sequences.
None of the characters really stood out for me.
Jesse’s heel turn is as obvious as the nose on your face and immediately amounts to nothing as he is killed right away; it’s not like he destroys the antidote and forces Charlie team to kill both Brady and Rosa, he just stands in the way for a moment and then gets stabbed from behind. Neither Falcon or Quan end up becoming fully-developing characters, but then this is par for the course of Fire and Ice. When I reviewed Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, I talked about how I wanted to see WildStorm focus more on telling a continuous story issue by issue rather than a whole bunch of vignettes and half-assed adaptations but, man, was I wrong. Their writers were no better at telling a month by month story with their own original characters than they were with Resident Evil’s more recognisable characters and, as I mentioned before, this time there’s no impressive, gory artwork to save the series. As a companion piece to Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, I guess Fire and Ice works well enough at fleshing out (or, at least, putting more of a spotlight on) some of WildStorm’s minor characters and maybe the team were planning on publishing a third mini series to wrap up all their loose ends but it definitely doesn’t read or seem that way. Instead, WildStorm again squandered their pages and efforts on one-dimensional, action, horror, and move clichés and archetypes, and somehow manages to tell a four-issue story without ever really getting into who these characters are, what their motivations are (besides being angry and quick to violence), or actually crafting a story that made logical sense.
It’s pretty cool how the covers all form one giant picture, though.
Like Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, Fire and Ice was eventually collected into a trade paperback which, like Resident Evil: Collection One (Various, 1999), is currently out of print but, unlike that collection, generally sells for about £40 to £60 rather than £60 to £200. They also returned to the franchise and published a prequel to Resident Evil 5(Capcom, 2009) between 2009 and 2011 but, after reading Fire and Ice, I can’t say I’m too excited about covering more of their Resident Evil comics later down the line. If WildStorm ever re-released their original Resident Evil comics, including Fire and Ice, into one affordable collection then maybe, maybe, as one complete package these comics might hold up slightly better but, as is, I wouldn’t worry about trying to add these to your Resident Evil collection, no matter how big a fan you are, as there’s really nothing on offer here.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Did you ever read Fire and Ice? What did you think of Charlie team and WildStorm’s original characters? Do you agree that the artwork in these issues is a massive step down from WildStorm’s earlier efforts, and that WildStorm bungled their time with the franchise, or do you have fonder memories of their efforts than I do? Which piece of ancillary Resident Evil media is your favourite? Thanks for coming back each week for my review of Fire and Ice; are there any other Resident Evil games or adaptations you’d like to see me cover? Whatever you think, leave a comment below and have a great Halloween.
It’s October and Halloween is right around the corner and what better way to mark the occasion and bring some extra views of any self-respecting content creator’s blog than by taking a look back at Resident Evil: Fire and Ice, a four-part comic book series published by WildStorm between 2000 and 2001. WildStorm had previously published a five-issue mini series that told interludes, heavily truncated recaps of the first two Resident Evil videogames, and introduced a whole slew of minor characters and original creators to what was, at the time, a far less complex lore. The Fire and Ice comics continue with this premise, ditching the anthology format to follow the hitherto-unknown Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) Charlie team, consisting of the heavily muscled team leader Falcon, newcomer and munitions expert Raquel Fields, and a whole bunch of one-dimensional nineties throwbacks with more diversity than you can shake a stick at: we’ve got the anti-authority Australian Quan Williamson, Patrick Brady (a former zoo keeper now endowed with minor superpowers), Mexican quasi-Native American Rosa Cardenas (whom it is implied Quan has a crush on but who actually has feelings for Brady…), and the somewhat unhinged tech-savvy Jesse Alcorn.
Falcon’s team runs afoul of traps as sophisticated as quicksand and some darts!
After splitting into two sub-teams, issue three rejoins Falcon’s team in Mexico where, you may remember, Falcon, Raquel, and Jesse managed to track down an Umbrella laboratory in Mexico. As they approach the pyramid-like structure, however, they fall victim to some of the oldest, most clichéd desert-based traps in the business: quicksand and darts! All that was missing was a pit of spikes with skewered skeletons and a rolling boulder and the writers would have nailed every cliché in the book.
Who needs a hacker anyway?
Narrowly escaping, Jesse states that he’s unable to crack the code on the entrance because of the sheer number of possibilities; he reckons it would take his computer “days” to break into the facility, which Raquel gives him some grief about. And rightfully so; I mean, what good is a damn computer hacker when they can’t even do the one job you bring them along for? Luckily, Raquel actually remembers that she’s good with explosives in this issue and simply blows the door open; if only that was an option in the videogames!
WildStorm deals the Licker a short hand once again.
Upon entering the pyramid, Jesse is immediately attacked by a Licker, further cementing himself as perhaps the most useless member of Charlie team so far. In true WildStorm fashion, the Licker is barely shown and easily dispatched by Jesse’s far more competent team mates and the three make their way deeper into the facility, where they not only discover Umbrella’s scientists cooking up new horrors in giant, gunk-filled tubes but also, inexplicably, spot Rosa and Brady held in captivity (this is presumably on some kind of monitor but, like last issue, the art isn’t very clear and makes it seem as though Falcon spots the two in the next room).
Whitlam has created a newer, better virus…but you can’t see it yet!
Back in Alaska, Rosa and Brady are being held captive in a dungeon-like cell after the events of the previous issue saw them attacked and captured by Umbrella agents Klaus and Mr. Venk in Alaska and Quan alone out in the frozen wastes of the Alaskan mountains. Quan rushes back to their last known location and finds only a radio transceiver that fell from Brady’s pocket in the last issue and allows him to listen in as the now grown-up (and, apparently, somewhat cybernetic) Dexter Whitlam monologues to Rosa and Brady about his evil plan. Building upon the work of William Birkin and refining the best aspects of both the Tyrant-Virus (T-Virus) and G-Virus, Whitlam reveals (much to Klaus’ chagrin) that he has crafted a new virus, the X-Virus, which he claims represents “a quantum leap in killing power” and boosts the victims strength, ferocity, augments their “natural fighting ability”, and renders them virtually unstoppable. He also reveals that, up until this point, the characters haven’t yet encountered anything actually infected with the X-Virus; the G-creatures were merely created to find suitable subjects for the X-Virus and, as Rosa and Brady were, somehow, the only two test subjects to not only survive but also kill two of the G-creatures, Whitlam believes that they will make ideal candidates for a dose of X-Virus.
A Tyrant breaks free and goes on a brief rampage.
Back in Mexico, and spurned on by the impending threat to the lives of their team-mates, Falcon’s team renders all of the Umbrella scientists unconscious with a gas bomb and moves to retrieve the data from their computers (assuming Jesse can hack in, of course) but, somehow, a Tyrant breaks free from its captivity and goes on a rampage. Partially stunned by the pain from her mysterious infection, Raquel is easily tossed aside and, with Jesse cowering under a table, this leaves Falcon to face the beast alone with only his shotgun. This is WildStorm, though, and they have never quite been able to portray Umbrella’s fearsome bio-organic weapons as the formidable threats they are in the videogames, particularly the Tyrant, and this is no different. It simply walks towards Falcon, who unloads shot after shot until he blasts a hole through its head and then fires a few more shots just to be on the safe side, proving once again that, in these comics, a Tyrant is a mere inconvenience more than a life-threatening menace.
At least time it took a rocket launcher to finally put the Tyrant down…
While attempting to locate an antidote to the X-Virus on the lab’s computer, Jesse accidentally activates the obligatory self-destruct sequence and the three barely make it out alive. The Tyrant emerges from the flames but, again, it’s just an inconvenience as Raquel has all the time in the world to load up a rocket launcher and blast it to pieces while barely breaking a sweat.
What is it with this art? Why does the Tyrant look so bad?
The issue ends with the sub-team stranded in the desert, surrounded by cactus plants shaped in a biohazard symbol, with no way to reach their comrades. It also ends with a dangling plot thread as, when Falcon admonishes Jesse for risking their lives, Jesse acts very shifty and claims that the self-destruct was merely an unavoidable accident. Like the last issue, the artwork really lets this issue down. The whole series, so far, has lacked the polish and visceral gore of Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, which suffered from similar writing issues and problems with the portrayal of recognisable Resident Evil characters, creatures, and tropes but at least had some decent gore to look at. Here, though, everything is so bland and simple and dull; even the Tyrant looks like a cheaply-drawn knock-off and there’s even less sense of threat or danger even with the inclusion of a Tyrant and the compulsory ticking clock that has become a staple of the Resident Evil series.
Fire and Ice‘s characters are a bland bunch of one-dimensional clichés.
Again, it doesn’t help that there’s very little to really keep us invested in WildStorm’s original characters; I can’t say that Fire and Ice would be better if the likes of Jill valentine, Barry Burton, and Chris Redfield replaced Charlie team but at least we’d be able to fill in the gaps about their personality and backstory. Here, we don’t really know anything about these characters beyond a quick introduction in issue one and some one-dimensional characterisation in these subsequent issues. It’s nice that WildStorm were able to give some of their minor characters more of a spotlight but Whitlam is just the clichéd mad scientist archetype, Falcon looks and acts like he stepped right off the set of Predator(McTiernan, 1987), and the rest of them are just a bunch of holdovers from the “Dark Ages” of nineties comic books. The next issue is the last in this series and it feels like I’ve learned very little to nothing about these characters and nothing of any real note has actually happened, and that’s a shame considering how WildStorm fumbled their last Resident Evil comic series.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Do you agree or do you feel I’m being too harsh on WildStorm and the Fire and Ice series? Do any of the characters stand out to you? Which Resident Evil character is your favourite, either from the games, comics, books, or movies? Which piece of ancillary Resident Evil media is your favourite or would you like to see produced? Drop a comment down below and come back next Tuesday for my review of the fourth and final issue of WildStorm’s Fire and Ice miniseries.
It’s October, which means it’s Halloween and it’s the duty of every content creator to do some kind of horror-themed content. As a result, I’m taking a look back at WildStorm’s second series of Resident Evil comic books, the four-issue Fire and Ice series published between 2000 and 2001. This time around, WildStorm have ditched the anthology format in favour of a continuous, original story revolving around a bunch of original characters, the hitherto-unknown Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) Charlie team. Last issue, Falcon’s Charlie team made short work of a circus full of infected zombies and were introduced to a new team member, munitions expert Raquel Fields, who is hiding a hideous mutation on her arm. Having recovered a disk naming two Umbrella facilities (one in Alaska and one in Mexico), the team has split into two and the last issue ended with Falcon’s sub-team face-to-face with a literal Day of the Dead south of the border…
There’s a bit of dissension in the Alaska team…
Issue two opens in Alaska with the second sub-team (the knife-wielding Australian Quan Williamson, former zoo security guard turned semi-superhuman bad-ass Patrick Brady, and team leader Rosa Cardenas) riding snowmobiles down the frigid mountains of Alaska. There’s a little bit of dissension in the early going as Quan, whom we were informed through a few dialogue boxes and brief snippets of his backstory has a bit of a problem with authority, takes umbrage with Rosa’s orders. However, a stern word from her is enough to quell that and he heads out while a monstrous bear watches on.
Raquel lops off her bony growth, which is clearly the best solution…
The story then jumps back to Mexico where Falcon’s team (including newcomer Raquel and tech-savvy Jesse Alcorn) open fire on the legions of zombies in an ironic perversion of the Day of the Dead festival. Oddly, despite Raquel being the munitions expert, it is Jesse who prepares a bomb while Raquel covers him; however, while doing so, she discovers a strange, bony growth coming out of her arm and decides the best way to deal with it is to chop it off with a meat cleaver! Meanwhile, back in Alaska, Brady tries to allay Rosa’s concerns over Quan’s absence by theorising that he has a crush on her; she dismisses this, however, and suggests, in a near-inaudible whisper, that she would be more interested if Brady had a crush on her. We’re only on the second issue, guys, are we really doing this sort of thing? I guess it’s an easy, cliché, artificial way of creating some kind of investment in these characters so we care more when their lives are in jeopardy or they get infected or die but it just kind of comes out of nowhere as I’m not really seeing anything that suggests any kind of sexual tension or attraction between any of these characters.
Once again WildStorm awkwardly shoe-horns in the puzzle aspects of the videogames.
Anyway, they are interrupted by some kind of flying creature; it’s not really revealed what it is but it’s apparently threatening enough for the two to rush back to their snowmobiles to get their weapons. However, they are stopped in their tracks when they find they are surrounded by large, monstrous bears and bipedal walruses whales, and even a particularly fearsome looking penguin! Back in Mexico, Raquel blows the explosives but gets into it with Jesse when he inexplicable runs towards the explosion rather than staying clear (honestly, the artwork doesn’t make it massively clear what’s going on in these panels). Falcon quells the dissension and gets the team back on track towards their primary goal (…pretty sure we just saw that with the other sub-team…). Raquel draws Falcon’s attention to a particular piece of artwork in one of the ruined houses that bares a set of runes that Falcon says match up with those identified by Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield from the Spenser Mansion. This despite the impossibility of even spotting such a small, insignificant set of etchings and Jesse scoffing at the importance of the painting.
They couldn’t have just driven straight there?
The clue leads the team to Umbrella’s laboratory, a temple-like structure somewhere in Mexico, and while I like the attempt to call back to the puzzle solving elements of the videogames…the team had a disk of data that led them to Alaska and Mexico. They acquired it from Umbrella so why were they just knobbing around in town rather than going directly to the lab? Why did they need to find an obscure clue to lead them to the obviously ominous structure? It just feels like they could have driven through the Day of the Dead festival and fought those zombies on the way to the lab and weaved the puzzle elements in some other way, like opening the entrance or something.
Brady knocks out a monstrous whale and then stupidly trips and knocks himself out!
The story jumps back to Alaska, where Quan has just finished setting up the “evac helipad” (which just looks like some lights stuffed into the snow) when he gets called back to assist Rosa and Brady with their situation. It turns out that whatever has infected these animals hasn’t just allowed whales and walruses to walk on land but also allows penguins to fly (so I guess the thing that flew at them earlier was a penguin, then…). Thankfully, my earlier criticisms regarding Brady’s suitability as a S.T.A.R.S team member comes to the forefront here as, though he’s able to blow the leg off a mutated wolf…thing and knock out a whale with the butt of his gun, he stupidly trips and falls in an effort to save Rosa from being beaten and skewered to death by a bear and walrus. As he falls, he smashes his face on an ice-hard rock but it only stuns him; in other comics and media (and in real life) this would probably kill him but I guess Raccoon City puts a lot of funding and effort into training and toughening up their zoo security guards.
Klaus and Venk return from WidStorm’s previous mini series.
Luckily, a mysterious individual and his sharp-shooting comrade, Mr. Venk, tranquilise the creatures and load them, and the S.T.A.R.S. team members, into their van to transport them back to preserve Whitlam’s research. If you’ve read WildStorm’s original Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, or my weekly reviews of each issue of that series, you’ll recognise the names and faces being tossed around in these last few panels: the unnamed, monocle-wearing man is Klaus; he and Mr. Venk appeared in WildStorm’s original comic series where they recruited the troubled youth Dexter Whitlam (who had transformed to and from a “G”-like creature using a stolen sample of Umbrella’s G-Virus) to Umbrella in issue five.
This issue’s art is bland and lacking the gore that made the first mini series bearable.
I quite enjoy how this series allows WildStorm to expand upon the roles of the original characters they created to fit into the Resident Evil lore; as I mentioned last week, none of these characters are particularly engaging or visually interesting thanks to them holding on to a lot of the worst one-dimensional clichés of comic books of the nineties (bulging muscles, a disdain for authority, and a penchant for leather and violence) but I’d much rather see these minor characters getting a bit more of the spotlight than WildStorm creating even more uninspired original characters. What lets this issue down, though, is the artwork; the art wasn’t particularly striking in the first issue but it’s even worse here. While Lee Bermejo (who would go on to much bigger and better things at DC Comics) and Shawn Crystal make decent use of shadows and lighting, the creatures are bland, boring, and rendered very gloomy; it’s not always clear what’s attacking the characters or what is going on, and everything looks painfully simple and dull. It also doesn’t help that the issue doesn’t really have any of the blood, guts, and gore that the original mini series showcased; the macabre spectacle tends to salvage the lacklustre writing of WildStorm’s Resident Evil comics and, without it, we’re left with these clichéd, one-dimensional characters who are trying way too hard to look, sound, and act tough rather than exuding the effortless cool and charisma of Resident Evil’s most popular characters.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Are you familiar with WildStorm’s Fire and Ice Resident Evil comic books? What are your thoughts on the plot and characters so far? Which obscure or forgotten Resident Evil videogame or character would you like to see expanded upon in other media? Do you have a favourite piece of ancillary Resident Evil media? Drop a comment down below and come back next Tuesday for my review of issue three.
Earlier this year, in a shameless attempt to grab more views around the release of the slightly disappointing Resident Evil 3 remake (Capcom, 2020), I did a weekly review of a five-issue comic series based on Capcom’s popular survival horror franchise which was published between 1998 and 1999. Given that, at the time, there were only two Resident Evil titles to work from, with the third still in production, Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine didn’t have a lot of material to work with and, whether through a direct mandate from Capcom or a conscious decision on the part of its creative team, largely decided against including direct adaptations of the source material and, instead, preferred to tell spin-offs, side stories, and interludes. Most of these, honestly, didn’t really add much, if anything, to the series lore; we saw what happened in the diner moments before Claire Redfield arrived in Raccoon City, for example, and follow Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Barry Burton on a zombie slaughtering tour across Europe and Leon S. Kennedy fight giant, mutated bat creatures but a lot of it fell far from the mark.
Honestly, Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine was at its best when it was telling recapped, truncated, or heavily modified adaptations of the firsttwo games and was saved from mediocrity by some truly stunning and gory artwork. Although the series was short-lived, WildStorm revisited the Resident Evil franchise with a four-issue follow-up series published between 2000 and 2001 that, as it’s Halloween this month, I’ll be looking into. The Fire and Ice series focused entirely on original characters, some of whom even return from Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, and featured many of the same writers and artists as that first five-issue series, so it’ll be interesting to see if WildStorm have better success this time around with their original characters and stories than they did last time or if they’ll spew out more drivel like Jill inexplicably battling with a werewolf.
Fire and Ice introduces us to a third S.T.A.R.S. arm, Charlie team.
Issue one opens up with the hitherto-unknown Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) Charlie team battling against circus freaks infected with the Umbrella Corporation’s infamous G-Virus. The team, led by Falcon, consists of the knife-wielding Australian Quan Williamson, the high-kicking Rosa Cardenas, the tech-geek Jesse Alcorn, and Patrick Brady, who lugs around a comically large energy blasting bazooka.
From simple security guard to highly-train, semi-superhuman S.T.A.R.S. member.
If Brady sounds familiar, it’s because he appeared in Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine where he was a simple security guard at the Raccoon City Zoo; although he managed to survive against a hoard of infected zoo animals, he was bitten by an infected prairie dog and exposed to the G-Virus. Luckily, he was saved by Leon (…because of course he was) and a S.T.A.R.S medical team were able to reverse the G-Virus effects (…despite the fact that they had failed in every other attempt). Somehow, as a side effect, Brady could also “sense the presence of the G-Virus” which, alongside his “natural fighting skills” (I mean, he was a security guard so I guess he had some training but I doubt it’s anything like Leon or Chris’s. Plus, I remember him panicking and running a lot in his first appearance…) got him a spot on Charlie team.
Charlie team is…colourful, if nothing else.
After filling us in on Brady’s story, the comic then spends the next few pages introducing us to the rest of the team: Falcon, a muscle-bound archetypal action hero who seems like Terry Crews before Terry Crews was a thing and also briefly appeared in Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, is a former Army Ranger who was betrayed by his superiors and framed for an unexplained “international incident” before being inexplicably recruited by S.T.A.R.S. Rosa Cardenas is a bad-ass goth chick; a Mexican raised on a Hopi Indian reserve who is proficient in “tracking skills” who has a personal grudge against Umbrella and their experiments after her mother was killed in the aforementioned diner during the Raccoon City outbreak. Quan Williamson is not only Australian but also of “Thai descent” who left behind his promising academic career and his love of vehicles and machinery because of his natural aversion to authority and his desire to form a band, though his life was forever changed after he witnessed Leon’s fight against the aforementioned bat-men. The violent and slightly unhinged Jesse Alcorn also has a disdain for authority bordering on the psychotic as he used his “amazing computer skills” to hack in NORAD and nearly caused a nuclear war, after which he was given a choice: life in prison or join the S.T.A.R.S. Charlie team.
Falcon is angered that Umbrella were waiting for them and specifically name him.
By this point, you might have noticed a common thread being weaved throughout the members of Charlie team: not only are they somewhat reminiscent of Task Force X (known by their more colourful title as the Suicide Squad) from DC Comics, each of them has either briefly featured on WildStorm’s previous Resident Evil comic series or has some link, however tenuous, with an existing and popular Resident Evil character. This reminds me very much of the way Paul W. S. Anderson would rope in popular Resident Evil characters like Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr), Claire and Chris Redfield (Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller), and Leon Kennedy (Johann Urb) into his later Resident Evil movies (2002 to 2016) simply to give their approval to Alice (Milla Jovovich), the all-action star of his film series. As in those films, this association does very little to endear me to these original characters as all it does is make me wish I was watching (or reading about) the actual Resident Evil characters rather than these knock-offs. Frustrated by the onslaught of circus freaks and animals looking to tear their throats out, Falcon gives the order for the team to deploy a series of bombs and blow the whole circus to cinders. In the aftermath, they discover a mortally wounded Umbrella employee who, with his dying breath, not only hints that Umbrella were aware and prepared specifically for Charlie team’s arrival but also drops Falcon’s name, sending him into a rage.
Raquel is assigned to a sub-team but is hiding a mysterious infection.
Back at their headquarters, Falcon introduces the team to their newest member, munitions export Raquel Fields, who essentially acts as the audience surrogate for the remainder of the issue as Falcon gives a brief introduction to his team members and then delves into a full-two page spread recapping the events of the firsttwoResident Evil games and detailing Charlie team’s overall mission goal: to track down, and put down, Umbrella once and for all. Although she claims to have missed the opening mission due to being knocked out in a training session, it turns out that Raquel is undergoing a severe mutation from a wound she sustained that she is going to great lengths to keep hidden from her team-mates. Having acquired a disk from the Umbrella agents at the circus, the team is then split into two sub-teams to investigate Umbrella’s laboratories in Alaska and Mexico, where they are apparently working on developing new viral strains. Rosa is placed in charge of Quan and Patrick in Alaska while Jesse, Raquel, and Falcon head south of the border; it’s this scene that really hammers home just how militaristic S.T.A.R.S. actually is; this was briefly shown in Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine but, generally, especially in the original Resident Evil videogames, the team always seemed to be more like a black ops arm of the Raccoon City police department rather than an extension of the U.S. military (even though they clearly had ties to the military).
The issue ends on a cliffhanger with a literal Day of the Dead!
The issue ends on a cliffhanger as, when Falcon and the others arrive in Mexico, they discover that the annual Day of the Dead festival has become a literal Day of the Dead as the townsfolk are actually flesh hungry zombies! The final page of the issue is a teaser for issue two (which hints at a Tyrant but…well, we’ll see) and a quick blurb from editor Jeff Mariotte introducing readers to this new mini series.
The action is loud and bloody…when it actually happens.
Disappointingly, the first issue of Resident Evil: Fire and Ice contains more exposition than action; it reminds me of the first issue of Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine, which was more interested in retelling events than actually showing us them directly and creating tenuous links to characters we know and love from the videogames. However, when the action does kick in, it’s just as bloody and explosive as ever and the artwork is decent enough, for the most part, but the character designs are extremely derivative and very nineties for a comic released in 2000. Each character is decked out in bulging muscles or impractical leather and buckle-clad outfits, wielding massive weapons and sporting such impractical accessories as eye goggles and a Mohawk. Visually, it allows you to easily tell each character apart, which is especially helpful when you’re dealing with original characters, but none of them exude the simple aesthetic of the earlier Resident Evil characters who didn’t need anything more lavish than practical, military-grade hardware and gear.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
Did you read Fire and Ice when it first released? If so, what did you think of Charlie team? Did you ever read the earlier Resident Evil comics published by WildStorm? Which Resident Evil videogame or character would you like to see a comic book series about? Do you have a favourite piece of ancillary Resident Evil media? Drop a comment down below and be sure to check out my review of issue two.
Dr. K's Waiting Room 
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